Yaletown Meets Mount Washington at Wildwood!

Leslie and Terry Farmer walked into the great room of their new home at Wildwood and gazed upward in awe.

The vaulted ceiling, constructed with exposed cedar and inspired by the
confluence of forest and sky, was a big selling point for the Farmers – in
fact, Leslie hadn’t even wanted to look in Wildwood at first, until she
saw the ceilings.

“My
wife wasn’t keen on this at first because it’s three floors,” Terry
Farmer said in a telephone interview from his home in Victoria. They
had first looked at units elsewhere at the Resort. Terry arranged for
a viewing at Wildwood and urged Leslie to come with him. “Once
she got into it on the ground floor she was sold immediately.”

The Farmers
are the first buyers in Wildwood, the newest development at Mount Washington.
Wildwood comprises eight luxury townhouse chalets in two, four-unit
buildings, located on Nordic Road near the intersection with Henry Road and
perched at the entrance to Strathcona Provincial Park. The Wildwood site was
selected for its convenient access to the Hawk chairlift and the trailhead
to Paradise Meadows.

The first
phase was completed in late June. The luxury chalets are the first
of their kind at the Resort and some have likened Wildwood to Vancouver’s
trendy Yaletown.

Architect Colin Kwok of Azurean Architecture Inc.
said his inspiration wasn’t so
much Yaletown as the thought of building something in which he would
love to be snowbound – “A place that felt like it was in
the mountains without a mountain vernacular being forced onto it,” he
said.

At the same time, he didn’t want to design “a city
project lost in the woods.”

“Like
Yaletown, an area that balances wonderfully aged exteriors with a certain
up-to-the-minute modernity, we (Kwok and developer Raymond Lam of Lam Family
Ventures Ltd.) very much wanted a fresh, updated version of what to do in the
mountains,” Kwok
said. “If it feels like Yaletown – and you like Yaletown – I
would say we were successful.”

Lam is more
pragmatic. “Wildwood at Strathcona was not created to be more
upscale, but simply to be different and provide more options for buyers
on the mountain,” he
said. “We feel that the characteristics that make Wildwood at
Strathcona different will be the reasons for its success.”

Both Kwok
and Lam have experience designing and developing high-end units; Lam
with a five-unit project in the Victoria area last year and a triplex conversion
in a turn-of-the-century home this year; Kwok with numerous projects from airports
to industrial parks, resorts to restaurants like Lumiere and Cioppino’s
(now Tojo’s),
also in places like Sydney, Australia, Toronto, Whitehorse, Vancouver,
Seattle, Shanghai and Argentina.

The uptown
nature of the design is what drew the Farmers to Wildwood. “It
was an attraction,” admits
Terry. “Not only the look and space, but also the way Raymond
has focused it. It’s going to be a beautiful place to live.”

Early on in
the planning process, Kwok and Lam decided to keep an exposed structure
on the inside of the high-vaulted ceilings in the upstairs living areas of each
unit. That theme is carried on with the polished banister and wood floors, as
well as exposed wood baseboards and trim.

“We
wanted to use a very natural colour palette consisting of a dark brown siding
and accented with lots of natural cedar,” Lam said.

“The
sophistication came in the building design. We wanted Wildwood to stand tall,
allowing for high ceilings to provide a sense of openness even while outside.
We wanted lots of decks to get outside into the fresh air and admire the breathtaking
views of Strathcona Park,” he said.

“We
wanted well-appointed interior finishes like maple cabinets and flooring, tile
in the bathrooms with slate floors and a sauna,” he said. The kitchen is
in the centre of the main floor living area.

“We
feel that a comfortable living space provides for a sense of calm and
relaxation. We envisioned a space to invite and entertain family and
friends, but also feel cozy when only two are snuggled up in front
of the fire.”

The
Farmers haven’t owned a ski chalet since their children were
young (they used to have a townhouse at Mt. Baker in Washington State).
Now that their daughter has had a child, Terry and Leslie thought it
was time to invest in another place.

Wildwood is
ideal because their daughter, son and their respective spouses are
all outdoor enthusiasts and the family home is located across the road
from Strathcona Park. Terry skis, but Leslie does not (although she
might try snowshoeing).

Farmer, who
owns the Accent Inns hotel chain, will likely keep his home for family
and friends, refraining from renting it out. “We will use it
a lot, and year-round,” he
said.

The Lams will
probably buy a unit in the second phase. Raymond Lam and his three
sisters grew up on Vancouver Island and enjoyed Mount Washington for
many years.

“Now
with husbands, wives and grandchildren around, we knew that our families
would be around to enjoy it for many more years to come,” Lam said.